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U.S. Intelligence Agencies To Prepare Damage Assessment Of Documents Recovered From Mar-a-Lago; Ukraine Accuses Russia Of Continuing To Shell Area Near Nuclear Plant; Herschel Walker Falsely Claims Raphael Warnock Lied About Having A Dog; Countdown Begins For NASA's New Mission To The Moon; Texas Drought Reveals 113-Million- Year-Old Dinosaur Prints. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired August 27, 2022 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[15:00:29]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington. And we begin with new fallout from former President Donald Trump's handling of White House documents after he left office.

The director of National Intelligence is now leading a damage assessment to determine if America's national security was put at risk from classified documents that sat unsecured at Trump's Florida resort. The Justice Department released a redacted version of the affidavit it used to get a search warrant for Trump's Mar-a-Lago home. In the affidavit the FBI said it had found 184 classified documents and boxes retrieved from Mar-a-Lago in January, including 25 that were marked top secret.

Some of the markings indicate the material was about human sources or spies that often work with the CIA, underscoring fears that these documents may contain some of America's most sensitive secrets.

CNN's Marshall Cohen joins me now. And Marshall, it seems we're learning more and more by the hour. What are we learning about this damage assessment?

MARSHALL COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This just came in within the last hour. It is a letter from our nation's top intelligence official Avril Haines that she sent to lawmakers yesterday, answering their question, which was, are you going to figure out if national security was actually put at risk here. And the answer was yes.

Let me read for you from the letter. She said, quote, "The Department of Justice and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence," that's her office, "are working together to facilitate a classification review of relevant materials including those recovered during the search." So the first thing they're going to do is look at everything. Do a review. See what is still classified and what is not.

Then she goes on to say, "ODNI will also lead an intelligence community assessment of the potential risk to national security that would result from the disclosure of these relevant documents." So that's the damage assessment. They're in charge of all of our secrets. They're going to try to figure out how much damage was actually done here from the apparent mishandling of all these materials.

ACOSTA: And Marshall, tell us more about what this affidavit revealed about the classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. It's pretty specific.

COHEN: It really was. And, you know, they had to be specific because again they were asking a judge to do something extraordinary. To grant them permission to send FBI agents to go search the home of the former president. It's never happened in history before. So they basically gave a breakdown to the judge of what had already been recovered from Mar-a-Lago when Donald Trump voluntarily handed over 15 boxes back in January.

Look at these numbers, Jim. 67 documents were marked classified in those boxes. 92 marked secret and then going from least to most classified here, 25 were top secret. Some of the documents, according to this FBI affidavit, had HCS markings, that is a fancy way to refer to human sources. Those are spies overseas that help our CIA.

ACOSTA: Yes.

COHEN: Some of the documents were marked SI, which is a reference to NSA programs and the type of collection that the NSA does. Very secret stuff. Some of the documents were referenced as no foreign, so only to be seen by U.S. eyes. Don't even share it with our allies. All this was to try to convince the judge that there was really restricted material that had no business being at Mar-a-Lago, that somehow got there, and they thought there was more. So that's why they asked for the search. They got the search and they found more when they looked.

ACOSTA: And how is Trump responding?

COHEN: He's responding in his usual way with a lot of disinformation and hysteria. He has accused the judge of being biased, even though there's no proof of that. He called this a break-in of his home. He's still calling it a break-in even though it was a court authorized search. And he said that this affidavit was subterfuge, though of course the judge said in his opinion he found it to be reliable.

ACOSTA: And still no explanation as to why he has them.

COHEN: That's the key question.

ACOSTA: Yes. Why did he have them? Why did he take them? Still don't have an answer to that.

All right, Marshall Cohen, thank you very much.

For more on this, let's bring in CNN senior law enforcement analyst and former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe and our CNN contributor, former Nixon White House counsel John Dean.

Gentlemen, thanks so much for being with us. I just want to hold up this front page of "The New York Times," because, you know, people might be asking what's the big deal with these documents, why are we making such a fuss of Trump having these documents at Mar-a-Lago. "U.S. Feared Trump File Puts Spies at Risk." I mean, that's sums it up right there.

[15:05:01]

The fear is, is that our U.S. spies may have been put at risk in all of this. Andrew, your thoughts.

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Jim, it's just absolutely stunning. I mean, this sort of information is the life bread of our national security apparatus. The collection of source information, the collection of signals intelligence which is overhears the communications of foreign governments and foreign terrorist entities, all kinds of things.

FISA coverage, so our own court authorized interceptions of those sorts of intelligence, and, of course, human intelligence. These are people whose lives are literally on the line every single day. If their efforts to assist the United States are uncovered, they could die. And to think --

ACOSTA: Somebody could get killed as a result of this information being out there.

MCCABE: That's absolutely right. That's absolutely right. And to think that the man who used to be -- swore an oath to ensure that the laws are faithfully executed, the guy who was formerly, you know, most responsible for the security of this nation has got that stuff sitting around in his basement mixed in with personal photos and letters it's just absolutely stunning. It's wildly irresponsible and dangerous.

ACOSTA: And John Dean, 184 classified documents, totaling some 700 pages, these aren't even the classified documents that the FBI found. This is the stuff Trump willingly gave them. The Department of Justice points to potential obstruction. What stands out to you?

JOHN DEAN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I think probably the most impressive thing is the carelessness with which Trump handled this. I remember my briefing when I got my top secret clearance and I actually was above top secret. And two agents came over from the CIA and had my secretary there, and we had about a 35, 40-minute conversation about how to deal with these documents, what were the consequences if they ever leaked.

We had to have a safe installed in the office to deal with them. And they impressed me because one of the things they said, if these documents are compromised that you get, some -- it could be somebody's life. And that's pretty dangerous. And I'm sure -- I can't believe that Trump wouldn't have gotten even a better briefing than I got as White House counsel. So the carelessness to take these -- actually, we don't know if he packed them up or ordered them packed up, we don't have those kind of details yet.

But we know he did learn they were at Mar-a-Lago, and he called them his documents. He wanted to keep them. He was told they weren't his but yet he continued to obstruct, if you will, and I think that he's going to have to pay the piper on this one.

ACOSTA: And Andrew, I want to zoom in on this -- I guess this phrase no foreign, this designation no foreign. Again, that means essentially no release to foreign nationals. It's eye catching because several foreign nationals have been arrested at Mar-a-Lago in recent years. I mean, this has made news from time to time. And a new report from the "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette" even says a federal investigation is underway into a Ukrainian immigrant who used a false identity to rub elbows with Trump at Mar-a-Lago last year, at the same time that all of these documents were there. So, I mean, there is a concern. Obviously, you would be committing law enforcement malpractice I would assume if you did not have a concern about this.

MCCABE: I mean, Jim, I spent many years conducting and overseeing counterintelligence investigations. I can tell you that Mar-a-Lago is a spy's dream. It's a soft target. It's open to the public. There's all sorts of ways in for a trained, determined intelligence officer. There are all kinds of ways in there. And you know that if you get in, you've got a person who had access to the government's most sensitive secrets, and who also has shown a track record over the last several years of handling those secrets irresponsibly, of sharing them with people that he shouldn't have and obviously storing stuff in an unauthorized fashion on the premises.

So it's absolutely a spy's dream to target to try to get into Mar-a- Lago and get a look around at whatever you might find.

ACOSTA: And John, the affidavit lays out four objectives of this probe, one is to, quote, "identify any person or persons who may have removed or retained classified information without authorization, and/or in an unauthorized space," that's one of the key mysteries here. How many hands did these pass through I suppose is one of the questions on the way to Mar-a-Lago? And if Trump didn't pack or transport these documents himself, does that matter in terms of his legal defense?

[15:10:05]

DEAN: Well, I think he's already claimed that the movers did this. And they packed them up and GSA, the people who did actually do some transporting say they did not pack the boxes. Had nothing to do with that phase of it. So, you know, there will be a lot of finger pointing going around. But I think the basic issue is, you know, he has a reputation for this kind of mishandling. When you read the affidavit, you're struck by the depth of research and investigation that's already been done.

This is a pretty mature investigation, in my eyes. And I think that we're going to get answers sooner rather than later I would hope this year on where they're going to deal with this because it is now so glaring that it affects all the handling currently of national security information. And this can be a teaching moment where somebody like a Donald Trump who has very little respect for the rule of law is held accountable. I can't imagine him not being and with this blatant misbehavior and abuse of his powers.

ACOSTA: And Andrew, Trump and his allies are trying to discredit the affidavit, we've seen it some of this on social media, conservative media, by arguing all the redactions are hiding some sort of sham political angle, some sort of conspiracy. Help us set the record straight. Is this anything other than an unprecedented transparency in an ongoing highly sensitive federal investigation? I mean, there are some folks who have been saying, you know, perhaps the feds gave away too much.

MCCABE: Ongoing investigation and ongoing counterintelligence investigation. We're talking about an affidavit for a search warrant, no one has been charged yet. This is beyond unprecedented. Search warrant affidavits are never unsealed until somebody has been charged and then the warrant in its full content is provided to the person charged so they can use it essentially in their defense.

They can attack the warrant, they can attack the process, all those sorts of things the defendants can do. We don't even have a defendant here yet. So the idea that the department had to go through this process was really pretty chilling I'm sure for the prosecutors involved but clearly this is an unprecedented situation. And you have a former president here, you have a department that's literally under attack from the former president, all of his supporters, every day with these baseless lies and, you know, misinformation on social media.

I think the judge wanted to be as transparent as he possibly could be. I think the department did a pretty good job here. They left a lot of meat on the bone. The facts that would not compromise the investigation were not redacted. And so obviously there are categories that had to be redacted to protect witnesses, to protect grand jury information, and to protect the investigation. I think they did a pretty good job.

ACOSTA: Yes, those redactions certainly make you want to know more. And, John, a "New York Times" editorial laid out potential risks of prosecuting Trump, quote, "It could further entrench support for him and play into the conspiracy theories he has sought to stoke. It could inflame the bitter partisan divide even to the point of civil unrest. A trial, if it viewed as illegitimate, could also further undermine confidence in the rule of law."

And we saw of these same arguments being made in favor of pardoning Nixon. But these potential consequences listed by the "Times" they've already been happening since November of 2020. Do you buy those arguments? You know, I wonder what would happen if years from now we look back and we say, look, you know, taking a look at the full scope of all of these investigations that Donald Trump is facing for him to escape all accountability, what kind of lesson would that send?

DEAN: Well, the initial reaction to Trump -- excuse me, of Gerald Ford pardoning Nixon has implications all the way down to Trump. The initial reactions were this was a healthy thing, this ended the nightmare, this stopped all of the Watergate issues that were then plaguing the Ford administration when he said I'm going to issue a pardon on Nixon.

Second thought and later wave has realized this was probably a mistake that Nixon was not held to account. He had clearly obstructed justice, he was part of a conspiracy, he'd also suborned perjury. These were serious offenses. But yet he got a pass, he a get out of jail free card. And that has rippled through subsequent presidencies that to this day they raise the issues should we hold the president of the United States to the same standard of everybody else.

[15:15:02]

Well, I think the consensus now, at least amongst thinking people, is that we should, that they should be held accountable. So yes, there'll be a lot of debate, the partisans will stamp their feet and bang their pots and pans, and still, in the end, we need to get to the bottom of this. A good trial as many Republicans, some of my friends, Republican friends, are now backing off. They initially thought, oh, this is over the top. They're trying to get him. It's another effort to nail him.

This wasn't stimulated that by kind of thinking. This, they were confronted with boxes of classified documents that were this the -- anybody else in the government, there wouldn't be a question that they would be prosecuted for this kind of serious abuse. So I think this has to go the distance. And I'll be shocked if it doesn't. And I think it'll really hurt the American presidency if it -- if not.

ACOSTA: All right. And we'll keep the pots and pans to the side, just get to the facts of the matter here.

John Dean, Andrew McCabe, thanks very much. We appreciate it.

Coming up, fears of nuclear disaster amid renewed shelling near a massive nuclear plant in Ukraine. We'll bring you the very latest coming up next. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:20:27]

ACOSTA: Officials in Ukraine say Russian forces are still shelling the area around a massive nuclear power plant in Ukraine, putting the facility at serious risk. Russia blames Ukraine for the shelling. The reported attacks come just one day after the plant was reconnected to Ukraine's power grid averting what could have been a major nuclear disaster.

CNN's senior international correspondent Sam Kiley is there. Sam, give us an update.

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Jim, fighting continues across the front line here in Ukraine with continuing accusations from both sides, both the Ukrainians and the Russians accusing one another of shelling or endanger the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station about 20 miles south of where I am here in Zaporizhzhia. There has been some evidence of shelling. Indeed the power station's main power source, that is electricity coming into the power station to run the cooling systems was cut a few days ago. It was repaired. The Ukrainians said it was a result of Russian shelling into effectively their own positions.

Now this is all going on in the background where the fighting elsewhere is remaining intense. Up in Kharkiv, the third American killed fighting on the side of the Ukrainians as part of that foreign legion volunteer force that many of whom came out in the early stages of the war has been confirmed. His remains, according to the so-called authorities, the Russian backed proxy government in the Donbas eastern parts of the country they are offering to return his remains which is something of a step forward in terms of their humanitarian response.

Because other prisoners of war, including foreigners have been accused of, charged and sentenced to death as mercenaries, well, they're also reportedly planning to put large numbers of other prisoners of war from Mariupol on trial for alleged war crimes and terrorism of course under the Geneva convention. Anybody who is fighting for and is part of a legitimate army as a sworn member of that armed forces is entitled to the full protection of those conventions -- Jim.

ACOSTA: Sam Kiley, thanks very much. And with me now is Jeffrey Lewis, the director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, and retired Brigadier General Peter Zwack who served as the U.S. defense attache to the Russian Federation.

Jeffrey, let me go to you first. How concerning is it that the Ukrainian President Zelenskyy says the Zaporizhzhia plant was on emergency diesel generators and that shelling continues around the plant. I have to think that they are on pins and needles over this.

JEFFREY LEWIS, DIRECTOR, EAST ASIA NONPROLIFERATION PROGRAM, MIDDLEBURY INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: Well, that's really not how reactors are supposed to be run. They have backup power for emergencies because if the reactor loses power all of the safety systems that cool the reactor shut down. So any time you hear about a reactor losing power, that's an extremely worrying event. It's good that they have a backup but that's not something you want to rely on routinely.

ACOSTA: And General, there is video of Russian military vehicles inside the turbine hall adjoining the nuclear reactor. A Ukrainian official fears those trucks may have explosives in them. How do you even attempt to address that incredibly precarious situation?

BRIG. GEN. PETER ZWACK (RET.), U.S. ARMY: I think, first of all, as is happening, the world, the media, needs to continue to very, very closely cover this. If something blows or there's a really, really bad leak, the Russians are responsible. It was their invasion six months ago that led to this whatever happens. The fact that Russian military on the grounds, I think there's an increasing sensitivity, they arrested two Ukrainian facility workers just the other day because of potential passing -- so it is a very, very flawed place.

But in the end putting it in context, this is because of the Russian invasion. And if it blows or more expectedly, if it were to be a major leak, it's going to be a huge problem first on their doorstep.

ACOSTA: Absolutely. And Jeffrey, yesterday Russia blocked a final draft of a nuclear disarmament treaty at the United Nations Review Conference. This is the treaty on the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons that was first signed in 1968 and is reviewed every five years. How unprecedented is this? How worrisome is that?

LEWIS: Well, you know, the reality is these are conferences that happen every five years, and often there isn't a final document, so it's disappointing when it doesn't happen.

[15:25:08]

What's unusual is that Russia this time is playing a counterproductive or destructive role. Usually the Russians are -- you know, they put aside concerns on other issues and they go along to get along and it's other countries that are problematic. So what I think we're seeing is this kind of shift in their diplomatic attitude, this kind of a hardening. They're really letting the conflict in Ukraine I think start to poison their relations across the board.

ACOSTA: And General, we're also learning that Russia is burning an estimated $10 million worth of natural gas a day near its border with Finland. This is even as it threatens to push Europe into an energy crisis by restricting exports. Why do you think they are burning off this gas? What's going on there?

ZWACK: It's a darn good question. Especially up along the Finnish border. I -- perhaps there's an overage or there is something that's -- it's sensitive, a pressure buildup and they've got to release it. I cannot give you any specific reason, but yet, it's certainly one to watch.

ACOSTA: And, Jeffrey, the Europe Union is going to convene a meeting as soon as possible over this potential for an energy war with Russia realistically. What can the E.U. do about this?

LEWIS: Well, I think the real issue here is reliability of supply. The E.U. is an enormous customer for Russian energy and so there's sort of two parts of this equation. There's the pain that's going to be felt in Europe because of the sanctions and just general cutoff of energy supplies. On the other hand, the Russians are going to suffer, too. Energy prices may go up and they're going to struggle to export things.

So there's going to be a huge dislocation. I think ultimately the place that we need to get to is making Europe less dependent on Russian energy supplies so they don't have this kind of leverage over our allies.

ACOSTA: And General, it's been a little while since I talked to you about the brutality that the Russians have demonstrated in Ukraine. But I want to ask you about these shocking images of metal cages. I mean, look at this, where Ukrainian POWs will be held ahead of expected trials by Russian backed authorities in Mariupol. To be clear, these trials are a propaganda exercise that could be in violation of international law.

How should the international community address this? I mean, just looking at this, it's absolutely ridiculous.

ZWACK: Jim, it needs to be aggressively addressed in all credible international fora, first in the United Nations and the -- no. It's beyond the pale and it follows consistently this pattern of viciousness and brutality that started on the 24th of February this year. Additionally, it plays in, they're doing this to be able to spin it domestically with their body guard of lies and disinformation that these are Nazis and fascists and they're being, you know, treated accordingly.

No, it continues to be monstrous. And I don't know how long they play the balancing game with that. And now you've got this near crisis around Zaporizhzhia and a whole bunch of other things, you talk pariah. They continue to play in. And it's not playing well in the world court, and they're sort of they're not aligned or semi-partners, have a hard time backing them. So it's hard to predict. I think it's first domestically focused.

ACOSTA: Yes. All right. Well, General Peter Zwack, thanks for staying on top of it. Jeffrey Lewis, thanks for joining us. Appreciate it, both of you. Thank you very much.

And now to this incredible and symbolic video from Latvia. This is a massive 260-foot obelisk that was erected there during the Soviet era. Take a look at this video. Just incredible. And it crumbling down on Thursday as the nation moves to dismantle sites glorifying Soviet or Nazi regimes. Just extraordinary video here. Latvia's foreign minister said the destruction of the monument allows the country to close another painful page of history.

Coming up we'll explain why a beagle is now caught in the middle of political mudslinging in the Georgia Senate race between Herschel Walker and Raphael Warnock.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:34:01]

ACOSTA: A dog is caught in the middle of a tight race between Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock and Republican Nominee Herschel Walker.

During the 2020 campaign, Alvin the beagle often made appearances with Warnock in ads. He even got his own profile piece in "The New York Times." Walker is now claiming that Warnock lied about having a dog.

CNN's Daniel Dale joins me now.

I guess, the question is, is Herschel Walker barking up the wrong tree here? What can you tell us?

DANIEL DALE, CNN REPORTER: Jim, this is weird stuff when you're talking about a dog. But there's some context I think might help people make sense of this.

Warnock has been accusing Walker about dishonesty of his own resume and a lot of that is documented. This past week, Walker fired back, with a claim like, well, you were willing to lie about having a dog. And not only that, in between, Walker leaked to a video from his

campaign that suggested that Alvin the beagle had gone missing.

Take a look at this video.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[15:35:00]

(SINGING)

(on screen): Alvin disappeared on Tuesday, January 5, 2021.

(SINGING)

(on screen): Please call Senator Warnock with any information:

(SINGING)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now we saw you walking all those dogs during the campaign.

(CROSSTALK)

(SINGING)

(on screen): "After all, he wasn't even Mr. Warnock's dog."

(MUSIC)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DALE: So, Jim, slightly obsessive over the owner of a Pomeranian. I could not resist looking into this. Was it true? Did Raphael Warnock lie about having a dog?

The answer is, no, he did not lie. And again, it was Walker's claim that is false.

So Alvin, the dog in the popular Warnock ads of 2020, belongs to one of Warnock's supporters.

And the key thing is Warnock never said Alvin was his dog. In the first ad in 2020, Warnock said, quote, "I love puppies," and held Alvin.

In the second ad, he walked Alvin around the block. He tossed out some dog food as a joking message about negative attacks against him. And he got some licks from Alvin. But there was no claim in either ad anywhere that the dog was his own.

Take a look at some of these clips.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RAPHAEL WARNOCK (D-GA): I think Georgians will see your ads for what they are. Don't you?

(BARKING)

WARNOCK: I'm Raphael Warnock and we approve this message.

AD ANNOUNCER: Raphael Warnock eats pizza with a fork and a knife. Raphael Warnock once stepped on a crack in the sidewalk. Raphael Warnock even hates puppies.

(BARKING)

WARNOCK: Get ready, Georgia. The negative ads are coming.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DALE: So I could see how viewers could assume this was Warnock's dog. But Warnock did not say that, either in the ad or in any public comments about the ad.

And the Warnock campaign told "Politico" before Election Day in early 2021 that the dog belonged to a supporter.

So, come on, Jim, we know that campaign ads include actors and stage scenes and fictional scenario.

One example is Republican Georgia Governor Brian Kemp released an ad in 2018 where he was holding a shotgun sitting beside a guy he identified as a young man interested in one of my daughters.

That young man was, of course, an actor. But this was not treated as a dishonesty scandal.

That's my dog report for you.

ACOSTA: All right. That dog won't hunt, I guess, is the problem for Herschel Walker's campaign when it comes to that ad.

As the owner of a beagle named Duke, I could not imagine lying about owning a dog. That is worthy of being tossed out of the race in my view.

DALE: Absolutely.

ACOSTA: We may need some proof before now and the November ads flying around.

All right, Daniel Dale, thank you very much.

Still to come, countdown to blast off. NASA is preparing for the liftoff of the mission called Artemis I. We'll take you live to the Kennedy Space Center next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:41:55] ACOSTA: NASA is counting down to a major launch of its most powerful rocket ever. If it all goes according to plan, the Artemis I mission to the moon blasts off Monday.

Nobody will be on board but it marks NASA's push to get humans back on the moon 50 years after the last manned mission.

CNN's Kristin Fisher joins us now.

Kristin, this is very exciting stuff. What makes this mission so historic?

KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE & DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT: Jim, it's historic for a lot of reasons. For starters, this is the most powerful rocket ever built.

For those of us lucky enough to see it in person and for the hundreds of thousands of people expected to come to the space coast to see this launch, they are really going to get to see quite a sight.

Bones are going to rattle as they like to say in the space industry to feel the power of this mega rocket. That's for one.

The other thing, Jim, is that this is the first time that NASA has had a human-rated rocket since the space shuttle for its own restaurants astronauts to fly on.

That was 11 years ago. And it's been 50 years since NASA had a rocket for astronauts to fly to the moon. That was the end of the Apollo program.

Now NASA is just -- you can see right there -- 37 hours and 50 minutes away from the first test flight of this Artemis moon rocket. A lot can go wrong between now and then. But as of now, all systems are go for launch.

Here is the Artemis mission manager, Mike Serafin, speaking at a prelaunch briefing about an hour ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE SARAFIN, ARTEMIS MISSION MANAGER: We're mindful this is a test flight. And we're mindful this is a purposeful stress test of the Orion spacecraft.

It is a new rocket and a new spacecraft to send humans to the moon on the very next flight. This is something that has not been done in over 50 years and is incredibly difficult.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FISHER: So in addition to dialing with dealing with these tremendous technical complications, NASA is having to deal with the Florida weather, Jim. This is August in Florida. Fortunately, no hurricanes are around the corner so they don't have to deal with that right now at least. But we are dealing with a ton of afternoon thunderstorms. And we found

out we have a strong storm coming through here a few hours ago.

And we just learned from a top NASA official that lightning actually struck that launch pad where the Artemis is right this minute. There's a lightning protection system around the launch pad and it appears to have done its job.

You can see shots of lightning striking one of the towers. There are teams out trying to assess if there's any damage. But that's one of the many things that NASA is having to contend with.

But as of now, the forecast for Monday, 70 percent favorable conditions on Monday. So fingers crossed it gets better than what we're dealing with right now out there.

[15:45:03]

ACOSTA: Yes, Kristin, I've heard there are thunderstorms from time to time in August in Florida.

If it does get delayed on Monday, I suppose what's the time schedule looking like after that? They'll just try the next day or wait a few days? How will that work?

FISHER: They have to wait a few days because they can only launch this rocket -- you got to time it up perfectly with the moon. So if it does not go on Monday, the next attempt is Friday, September 2nd, and then on Monday September 5th.

You have to line this up perfectly. It's going to orbit around the moon. It's a 42-day mission. It's going to go further than any human- rated space craft has ever gone before.

And it's going to stay around the moon for about two weeks before coming back to earth and then splashing down somewhere in the Pacific Ocean.

So there are some other backup launch dates on the calendar. But somebody else in that briefing, Jim, earlier today was saying we would love for it to go now because, as you know, it only gets worse as you get closer into like really the heart of hurricane season.

So everybody at NASA is hoping this weather goes away and they're able to get the rocket off the launch pad on Monday -- Jim?

ACOSTA: Fingers crossed. I'd love to see that fire in the trench. I'm jealous I won't be there. But Kristin will be there for us.

Thank you so much, Kristin Fisher. We appreciate it.

Coming up, why 113-million-year-old dinosaur prints were just discovered in Texas.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:51:03]

ACOSTA: A Louisiana man has been exonerated after spending more than 36 years in jail for a rape he did not commit. Sullivan Walter is now 53 years old. He was 17 when he was arrested and prosecuted as an adult for a home invasion and rape in 1986.

Lawyers for Innocence Project, New Orleans, say testing done on bodily fluids in the 1980s concluded Walter was not the perpetrator.

But Walter's attorneys say the police officer analyst at the time misrepresented the results to the jury. Court documents indicate his jury trial lasted one day.

The Orleans Parish D.A. says Walter suffered a terrible injustice and they are working every day to prevent such avoidable tragedies from happening again.

Now to a shocking story out of Ohio where a ring doorbell camera captured the attempted abduction of a 6-year-old girl. You can see her on the left there near the trash can. Watch.

After the girl screamed, the man let go. The girl's mother said her 6- year-old was taking out the trash as she's done before when the man reached out and groped her.

She said she and her husband tried to chase the man by foot before her husband got in his car and followed him. Police later apprehended the man, 33-year-old Derrick MacPherson. He is being held in jail on fifth degree felony abduction charge.

And now to Texas where a severe drought has revealed dinosaur footprints from 110 million years ago.

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JEFF DAVIS, SUPERINTENDENT, DINOSAUR VALLEY STATE PARK: Over the summer, summer of 2022, it's been a pretty bad drought. So the river that runs through the park has dried up, and left us high and dry, which is not a great thing.

But the good thing about it is it exposes dinosaur tracks that haven't been seen before or tracks that haven't been in years or sometimes decades.

It's a dinosaur, Acrocanthosauros, from 113 million years ago. It was a two-legged carnivore, small arms very much like a tyrannosaurus rex, but a little bit smaller. It was still a pretty large creature. They were about seven tons or so when they were big. Not a small critter for sure.

And they walked through the limey, muddy seashore on the edge of the ocean that ran through what's now the United States.

What protects these tracks, you know, they were laid down as a dinosaur walked on these muddy seashores and, within a few days or weeks, not in the not-too-distant future from when they were put there, a flood covered it over with sediment.

And that sediment is what protected it. And then, over time, those layers of sediment turned into limestone and other stones there. For over 100 million years, those were protected and preserved by those layers of sediment and rock.

And then the river carves down through those layers and exposes the tracks. So it's kind of a double-edged sword because without the river, we wouldn't be able to see them, we wouldn't know they were there.

But once they're exposed, that's when they start to degrade. Just like any rock, they're going to break down over time thanks to weathering and erosion.

This is a creature that really lived and walked the earth. It just wasn't in a movie when I was a kid. So that's pretty special for me.

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ACOSTA: Fascinating stuff.

Now to this week's "CNN Hero."

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UNIDENTIFIED CNN HERO: We're all refugees and immigrants. Food is a sense of self-preservation. So as long as you preserve those family recipes, it really instills a sense of rootedness, feeling connected to your cultural up upbringing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In August, Chef Orbal will be partnering with Flavors from Afar to highlight her dishes from Afghanistan.

UNIDENTIFIED CNN HERO: My restaurant, Flavors from Afar, we really bring international cuisine to Los Angeles in a way that hasn't been done before.

And it's a way to highlight chefs who all share some form of displacement. Giving these home-trained chefs an opportunity to shine, it's amazing. And 40 percent of the proceeds go back to the nonprofit.

[15:55:12]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can I borrow some of yours?

UNIDENTIFIED CNN HERO: The foundation serves immigrants, refugees and displaced indigenous communities. My mom and i, we knew that we could help make the path easier for other families. We want to create a sense of community.

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ACOSTA: And to learn more about this story, go to CNNheroes.com. And we'll be right back.

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